Tatsuo Uchii runs an art museum called Shochiku Drum. It is called an art museum, but in fact, it is mainly reselling artworks for profit, and it also rents out space to hold private art exhibitions and auctions, and it is quite famous in the Hirano art circle.

When Nanahara Takeshi and his entourage arrived at the Songzhugu Art Museum, it was almost six o'clock, and the sky was already dark, and the staff at the entrance of the museum reminded them that the museum was about to close, and the tickets had been discontinued.

Eri Nakano nodded in thanks and was about to go to the side door, but Takeshi Nanahara looked at the slightly broken poster in front of the venue and asked, "Igator Ichise's work has seen the light of day?" Is there an authentic painting of Tsukase in your museum? ”

The staff smiled: "Yes, the auction is already being prepared, and the time is this weekend." ”

Takeshi Nanahara asked with interest, "How long has it been on display in an art museum before?" ”

The staff thought for a moment and said, "It's going to take about three weeks, and the public exhibition won't end until last weekend, so if you come two days early, you'll be able to enjoy it." ”

Nanahara Takeshi smiled again and asked, "Was this the original plan?" ”

The staff was a little puzzled, but still replied with a smile: "Yes, the original plan was to open the exhibition for about three weeks to warm up the auction and expand our popularity." Well, there are some other works on public display at the same time, which is the largest public exhibition event of our museum in recent years. ”

"Thank you." Nanahara Takeshi thanked him sincerely, turned his head and went to the side door.

"Who is Fan Ichinose?" Kiyomi Ruri was desperately flipping through her small notepad, she had the name in her mind, but she couldn't find it for a while.

Qiyuan Wu said casually: "An unlucky monk." ”

"What do you mean, tell me in detail." Kiyomi Ruri simply didn't turn it over, and asked the know-it-all Nanahara Takeshi directly.

Nanahara Takeshi glanced at her, and saw that Eri Nakano's lenses were also shining with a white light of interest, so he gave a brief science popularization to two girls, one big and one small, who didn't care about artworks.

Ichinose Fan was born in a family of down-and-out samurai, and was the second son with no inheritance rights, and was sent to the temple by his father as a young monk not long after he was born. When he grew up in the temple, because of his clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, shy personality like a woman, and quite talented in painting, he was favored by the local daimyo and was selected as a member of Ami, which is regarded as a fellow friend - the diners who are responsible for amusing and relieving boredom by the daimyo's side are usually a little talented, such as Oda Nobunaga's side with Nohin Kan Ami and Shi Ami.

To put it simply, Ichinose Fan can be regarded as a "royal painter", and his main job is to draw a small yellow book for the lord to relieve boredom.

After becoming a fellow friend, his living situation changed greatly, and he also came into contact with the wider art world, laying a good foundation for the future advancement of painting, but the good times did not last long, and after five or six years of stability, the daimyo he followed was destroyed, and he was forced to return to the temple, and then because he could no longer get used to the poor life of the temple, he began to look for a new daimyo and took the initiative to sell himself.

He has taken refuge in a number of small daimyos, city lords and even a certain wealthy family, the grade is lower than one time, but always can not settle down for two days, the main family is either killed or imprisoned, or also became a monk, and finally he was forced to wander around, once by selling paintings to merchants for a living, but during the war, the emperor's family had to rely on selling words and paintings to subsidize the family, this line is too much, even if his painting skills have improved, he is still in a state of half-starvation all day long,

After more than ten years, he wandered to Kyushu Island, and finally survived until the monkeys took over the world, and the war was a little calmer.

At this time, he was already well-known in the art world, and was recruited as a painter by the heir of the monkey, Toyotomi Hideji, and traveled around the world with him, allowing him to draw a picture of the world's scenic spots, and he just felt that his life was about to usher in a new stage, because the monkey gave birth to his own son, he wanted to deprive Toyotomi Hideji of his inheritance, and convicted Toyotomi Hideji of treason......

Toyotomi Hideji was ordered to commit suicide, and he also became a member of the "conspiracy rebellion", and fled to Okinoshima Island in a hurry.

During his seclusion on Okinoshima, he was afraid of being killed because he had nothing to do, but he devoted himself to artistic creation to anesthetize himself, and like other painters, he tried to integrate the very unique lines of the Chinese Jiangnan woodblock prints and the illustrations of the legendary novels of the Ming Dynasty that he came into contact with on Kyushu Island into his works, and he already had a bit of the charm of ukiyo-e in later generations.

Well, ukiyo-e is derived from Chinese Jiangnan prints, that is, the kind of fat doll New Year painting holding a fish, at that time, a large number of Song and Ming Dynasty scripts with woodblock illustrations were introduced into the book, which was loved and imitated by many painters, and gradually had the prototype of ukiyo-e, and even later ukiyo-e was transmitted to Europe, Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet and others were affected, and now many people like Western modernist works, tracing back to the roots, how much and China's Jiangnan big fat doll touched.

After living in seclusion on Okinoshima Island for a while, Ichinose Fan's painting skills were finally completed and had his own style, and at this time, Tokugawa Ieyasu was also peaceful, and Tokugawa Ieyasu finally took over the world with the support of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's beloved wife Chacha.

When the Tokugawa shogunate completely stabilized the situation and cleaned up the chaotic party, two or three years passed, and the Tokugawa shogunate was ready to start enjoying the peaceful and prosperous times, and finally set its sights on the field of art.

Ichinose Fan was naturally very excited when he received the news, and felt that he had finally come out of it, and celebrated a carnival, but he died suddenly after drinking too much, and only his posthumous work was sent to Edo, and finally ended his ill-fated life - some people say that he drank too much alcohol because of excitement and went wild, and finally got drunk and froze to death in the snow, but he died anyway.

Nanahara Takeshi briefly recounted the life experience of Ichinose Fan, and finally said: "At that time, his posthumous works were not too valued, and when they were sent to Edo, they were thrown into the warehouse to eat ashes, and they were damaged by poor storage, and only some of the eighteen forbidden works created in the early days were very popular, and it was not until the middle and late shogunate, influenced by the Western trend, that his works began to be sought after again, but after almost two hundred years, there were not many intact works that he could find, and then he encountered the Edo turmoil, and burned down and lost a lot, and there are not many left. ”

"I see." Kiyomi Ruri felt that she had gained insight again, but she didn't care about an ancient person who was not unlucky, and she didn't care about the artistic value, so she only asked curiously: "If there are very few of them, his paintings must be very valuable, right?" ”

"Vulgar!" Nanahara Takeshi glanced at her disdainfully, "How can a work of art be measured in money." ”

"It's not worth much, is it?"

Nanahara Takeshi touched his chin and groaned, and said: "He is not the kind of painter who can go to the textbook, although his artistic style is also similar to the 'flesh brush ukiyo-e', but Hishikawa Shixuan is recognized by everyone as the pioneer of the flesh pen ukiyo-e, the light completely covers him, and he doesn't have much fame left, and the paintings can be mixed with a national treasure at most to accompany the exhibition, about a picture that can be worth thirty or fifty million yen, depending on what period of his work."

The early Spring Palace Diagram and the late Meat Brush Painting Art Style are more collectible and have the potential for appreciation, and collectors and insurance companies who love unique hobbies will like it, and those Zhiwei legends that are scribbled for the middle period are much worse, far less than the famous works of the same era. ”

"Thirty or fifty million yen is not a lot." Kiyomi Ruri is also not very familiar with the economy, but he also knows that he can buy a big villa in Hirano at this price, and Matsuuchi's river-view house is not worth this price, so he can't say less, and said in a deep voice, "I flipped through the notepad just now, Yuto Matsuuchi came here two days before he was killed, just to interview this exhibition of famous paintings, so is it possible that he found out that Ichinose's works are fakes and wants to report them, so Tatsuo Uchii doesn't do anything, and simply ...... him"

Speaking of which, she murderously put her little hand down everything, her expression was a little vicious, it was enough to be a murderer to arrest directly, and Nanahara Takeshi did not deny her reasonable guess, touched her chin and said: "It is indeed a good motive for killing, but as far as my understanding of Yuto Matsuuchi is concerned, he is purely messing around as an art columnist, if a fake can deceive professional art dealers and appraisers, I don't think he can distinguish it with that professional level." ”

Well, that's right, there's no reason why Yuto Matsuuchi's professionalism is better than that of a professional appraiser, otherwise he would have a better future as an art expert than an art columnist.

Kiyomi Ruri held her breath, and they chatted all the way, and they had already arrived at the office area of the Shochiku Drum Art Museum, and Eri Nakano stopped a staff member and asked, and easily found Tatsuo Uchii's office.

…………

Tatsuo Uchii's office is not very large, but the tables, chairs, and cabinets are cleverly arranged and coordinated, and it is very comfortable to look at, and there are three beast specimens on the wall, such as a deer's head, a boar's head, and a goat's head, which show the bravery and hunting skills of the owner of the room.

But Tatsuo Uchii doesn't look very strong, his body is thin, his face has a frosty color, there are many wrinkles, and he is relatively old-looking, but he is thin and thin, and there is a faint energy between his hands and feet, which makes people dare not despise it at all.

He didn't feel anything about the police coming to the door with a high school counselor and a JK, and received them with a slight smile, and he didn't react much to the murder of Yuto Matsuuchi, which was basically the same as the answer when the police came to inquire before.

The public exhibition is a major art event in Hirarano, Yuto Matsuuchi specially came to interview, to learn some information about the exhibition, the source of the paintings and other insiders of interest to readers, and this is a good publicity, Uchii Tatsuo also received him warmly, the two sides talked very happily, and even took him to the museum staff dinner together, everyone drank a few glasses together.

Kiyomi Ruri asked for a while but didn't notice anything wrong, thought about it, stared at Uchii Tatsuo's face tightly, and said tentatively: "Uchii-san, the most valuable thing in the public exhibition at that time was Ipise Fan's painting, Matsuuchi-san must be very concerned about this painting, so let's go and see it too?" ”

She hadn't completely given up her guess, if Yuto Matsuuchi could see that it was a fake, then Takeshi Nanahara would definitely be able to see it, and maybe he could lock up the murderer directly, but as soon as she finished speaking, Tatsuo Uchii got up and took a promotional leaflet back, and said with a smile: "It's not one, it's four, it's the most proud work of Mr. Ichise's creative career, so I will make this set of works the main exhibit of the public exhibition." ”

Nanahara Takeshi directly stretched out his hand and took it, glanced at the color photo on it and raised his eyebrows, "It turned out to be these four paintings, no wonder they would say that they would see the light of day again, these four paintings have indeed been missing for a long time." ”

Tatsuo Uchii looked at him in surprise, sat back and smiled, "Yes, it is the "Okinoshima Shichi-jima" that was lost when Edo opened the castle, and it is indeed fortunate that it can be rediscovered. ”

Nanahara Takeshi looked at the photo carefully, nodded lightly, and said, "It makes sense that Ichinose Fan's painting suddenly appeared in Hirarano." Then he looked up with interest and asked, "It seems that Uchii-san picked up the leak, so can you tell me how you picked it up?" ”

Tatsuo Uchii smiled but didn't want to say anything, and Takeshi Nanahara didn't care, and looked down at the photo again.

Kiyomi Ruri had already accompanied him to take a few glances just now, and found that these four paintings were in the form of long scrolls, depicting the four seasons of Okinoshima and the lifestyle of the local residents, all of them were somewhat skyy, and even one of them was the night sky, which seemed to be very suspicious, but she had been taught a lesson in Tokuyoshi's studio, and no longer made a fuss, just pointed to one of them and said in confusion: "Is this scroll cracked?" The painting seems to be missing a corner, and it seems to be ...... Have you soaked in water? ”

The smile on Tatsuo Uchii's face disappeared, and he sighed: "Wandering among the people, I have been pressed in the debris pile of a family's warehouse, the storage conditions are too poor, and it was already damaged when I found it, and I haven't found anyone who is sure that it will be 100% perfect, so I don't dare to do it easily, so I can only show it like this." ”

After a pause, he justified the finale of his auction, "but even if it is slightly damaged, it will not affect its own artistic value." ”

Kiyomi Ruri didn't understand any artistic value, and looked at the photo and felt that it was not very clear, so he hesitated and asked, "Can't you let us go and see the original painting?" Just look at the photos......"

"I'm happy to cooperate with the police, if you feel the need to, of course you can, but tomorrow is okay?" Tatsuo Uchii did not refuse, "This painting does not belong to the museum entirely, I have limited ability, I paid a huge loan for the purchase, and now the painting is in the safe, and I will not take it out again until the auction." To see the original painting, I need to be present with the bank representative at the same time to prevent some unnecessary disputes. ”

"Okay." Kiyomi Ruri felt that the people's request was very reasonable, and it was true that they came too late.

Tatsuo Uchii glanced at his watch, looked at them and asked, "Do you have any other questions?" ”

Kiyomi Ruri hurriedly said, "I still need to know your whereabouts that night." ”

Tatsuo Uchii was really cooperative, got up and picked up the phone, and said, "No problem, but I've been busy with the auction recently, and I made an appointment to have dinner tonight, and the time for the appointment is almost up, if you don't mind, I'll let Heidate-kun talk to you, I've been with him that night." ”

He was already very cooperative, without the slightest impatience, compared to Deji's old pervert, he was simply a representative of the five good people, and it was naturally impossible for Shichihara Takeshi and his party to have an opinion, so they could only leave.

Tatsuo Uchii politely escorted them to the door and said, "I also regret the murder of Matsuuchi-san, and if there is anything else I need to do, feel free to call me." ”

"Okay, thanks." After communicating for a while, Kiyomi Ruri and Eri Nakano had a good impression of him, and thanked him in unison, while Nanahara Taketo walked out of the door first, and then came back and asked with a smile: "I almost forgot, Uchii-san, if you were asked to describe Matsunachi-san as an animal, what kind of animal do you think he would be?" ”

Tatsuo Uchii was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile: "Probably it will be a mountain whale, huh...... Yes, Matsunachi-san takes his work very seriously and is very motivated, like a mountain whale. ”